The present invention relates to a card connector for connecting a card such as a flash memory card to a printed circuit board, and specifically to such a card connector equipped with an ejector mechanism for ejecting the card from the card connector.
Known card connectors typically comprise an insulating housing having a plurality of terminals laterally arranged and mounted therein and adapted to mate with corresponding contacts on a memory card, and a card ejector mechanism for ejecting the card from the housing. The card ejector mechanism is composed of a rotary lever pivotally fixed to the housing and an ejection rod operatively connected to the rotary lever for turning the rotary lever and ejecting the card.
The rotary lever is pivotably movable relative to the housing and is mounted between the housing and an overlying shell cover. The ejection rod is movably mounted on one side of the housing, such that it moves back and forth in directions opposite to the directions in which the card is ejected and inserted into the housing. One end of the ejection rod is operatively connected to one end of the rotary lever. The rotary lever has a tab provided on the other end, and the tab of the rotary lever engages the front end of the card after it is fully inserted into the housing. With this arrangement, insertion of the card into the card connector causes the rotary lever to turn in one direction, thus causing the ejection rod to move in the (rearward) direction opposite the(forward) direction in which the card is inserted. Conversely, when the ejection rod is pushed inward, i.e. in the forward direction, the rotary lever turns in the opposite direction, thus causing the tab to eject the card from the housing.
Such conventional card connectors structure have the rotary lever and the overlying shell cover mounted on the housing. However, the laminating stacked construction of these components, prevents reduction of the height of the connector body, and therefore cannot meet the ongoing requirement for height reduction and low-profiling of card connectors.
An object of the present invention is to provide a card connector structure whose profile can be reduced significantly.
To attain this object, the ejection mechanism according to the present invention includes a rotary lever that is composed of front and rear sections at different levels; wherein the lower front section is covered by the cover member and the higher rear section is exposed to be flush or coplanar with the cover member.
Specifically, the card connector comprises: a U-shaped insulating housing comprising a main body and two parallel longitudinal extensions connected to and extending from opposite ends of the main body and defining a card cavity therebetween; a plurality of terminals mounted in the main body for mating with corresponding contacts of a memory card; and a card ejector mechanism for ejecting a card from the card cavity comprising a rotary lever and an ejection rod for turning the rotary lever, wherein the rotary lever comprises front and rear sections, the front section being contiguous with the rear section and located in a plane parallel to and lower than the rear section, and wherein the front section is rotatably fixed to the main body and covered by a cover member, which is mounted to the main body and is coplanar with the rear section of the rotary lever.
With this arrangement, the total height of the card connector is reduced to the height of the insulating housing plus the thickness of the rotary lever of the card ejector.
The cover member comprises upper and lower plates and a rear plate integrally connected to the upper and lower plates to form a cover body having a U-shaped cross section, so that the upper and lower plates are mounted to the front section of the rotary lever and to the main body of the insulating housing, respectively, thus sandwiching the front section of the rotary lever and at least a selected part of the main body of the insulating housing.
With this arrangement, attachment of the rotary lever to the housing is facilitated.
The rotary lever further has an arc-shaped projection formed on a lateral edge of a front section thereof, thus allowing the arc-shaped projection to abut the rear plate of the cover member, acting as a pivot fulcrum for the rotary lever.
Since the rotary lever is made of thin sheet metal material, the rotary lever is positively supported with minimum friction.
The main body includes a stud provided thereon, and the rotary lever and upper plate have apertures formed therein to accommodate the stud.
With this arrangement, the attaching of the rotary lever to the housing is facilitated, and friction is minimized.
The card connector further comprises a traversing shell cover to cover at least a portion of the card cavity, wherein the shell cover is coplanar with the rear section of the rotary lever and with the cover member.
The traversing shell cover increases the mechanical strength of the parallel longitudinal extensions, and the card cavity is prevented from being deformed. Furthermore, the shell cover can be used in robotic assembly of the card, that is, when a vacuum head is applied to the shell cover, it can be transported to an associated printed circuit board for installing therein. This facilitates automatization in assembling lines.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be understood from the following description of a card connector according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.